The Radio Dept. – The New Improved Hypocrisy

When they’re good they’re supersonic, when they’re not they can be a little forgettable. So things were looking a bit ominous when their super label wrote about the Radio Dept.’s new song, which had a distinct political bent. Luckily for Cowen it was written before Tuesday night so the band instead directed their ire towards the Swedish equivalent. Not that we’d be drawn into that sort of thing if the music wasn’t any cop but thankfully on this occasion the results are completely effervescent. This is the Radio Dept. in not trying too hard to evoke scenes-gone-by mode, instead they let the melodies that inhabit their minds slip by unhurried via sublime vocal/instrumental devices. Suddenly and without warning their newbie ‘Clinging To A Scheme’ feels like an essential acquisition. KD